Owen the Griff, Lakefield’s Instagram star, is heading to the Big Apple

Lisa Besseling and Marlon Hazlewood are taking their popular pooch to PetCon in New York City, a conference for the world's most influential pets

Owen the Griff, the adorably cute Brussels Griffon owned by Lisa Besseling and Marlon Hazlewood of Lakefield, now has more than 36,400 followers on Instagram. His human parents are taking him to New York City in November for PetCon, the first-ever conference for the world's most influential pets on social media. Owen's social calendar is quickly filling up for the weekend, with so many of his fans wanting to meet him. (Photo: Marlon Hazlewood)

Instagram star Owen the Griff is heading to New York City where his humans will attend PetCon, billed as “the first and only event to bring together the world’s most influential pets.”

More than 30 celebrity pets and influencers who will be in attendance at PetCon, which takes place on November 18 and 19th. You may be wondering why there’s a social media conference for pets, but many pet-related accounts have millions of followers and social media influencing is big business.

Some of the most popular accounts on Instagram collect images of pets from around the world, while others feature specific pets. For instance, @cats_of_instagram has 8.4 million followers, @dogsofinstagram has four million followers, while @tunameltsmyheart (a Chiweenie — a mix of Chihuahua and Dachshund) has 1.9 million followers.

With 36,400 followers, @owenthegriff isn’t yet in the millions, but Owen’s growing online popularity is undeniable and he is much beloved by his fans.

The 10-year-old five-pound Brussels Griffon (a breed of toy dog named for its city of origin in Belgium) is the shop dog at Stony Lake Furniture Co., located in Lakefield, Ontario, near Stony Lake. Even before Owen became an Instagram celebrity, he was already stealing the hearts of family and friends and visitors to the store.

Lisa is the owner and designer at Stony Lake Furniture Co. and her husband Marlon is a photographer — and one half of the creative genius behind Owen’s great photo shoots, part of the reason behind Owen’s popularity on Instagram.

“I wanted a place to post Owen’s photos and not be filling my own social accounts with all of Owen’s photos,” says Lisa, explaining why she originally created an Instagram account for Owen. “It was a place where friends could see Owen online.”

For example, Owen often walks backwards through doorways. He wasn’t trained to do this, according to Lisa.

“We think that maybe it’s the way the light hits the floor sometimes,” she says. “It’s the same way that a child would go downstairs backwards — he backs up through the door.”

Owen also barks like a chicken (he will be sporting his chicken hat while in New York City).

Breakfast with Owen and his human dad Marlon has also become a regular and popular feature with the fans. Owen eats fruit and also really loves his human dad, so their Instagram videos of eating breakfast together are a big hit.

So what prompted Lisa and Marlon decided to go to PetCon in New York City and take Owen with them?

“Recently we travelled to Burlington to attend a meetup for other griff owners,” Lisa says. “These are people we only knew online, but I would trust Owen with them — I see how they care for their own griffs.

“So when the opportunity arose to attend PetCon we decided to go for it. We’ll be meeting up with other griff owners that we have met online, and our hotel is even nearby to one.”

Owen’s calendar is already getting full for the weekend at PetCon, with so many of his fans really wanting to meet him.

Jeannine Taylor is the publisher and editor-in-chief of kawarthaNOW.com and a contributing writer.
She's a self-professed geek and early adopter.
She's also a vegetarian, music lover, and arts enthusiast.
Jeannine would rather be at the cottage kayaking, boating, reading, paddle boarding, or biking with her border collie Tess.
You can follow her on Twitter @wiredwoman or @markstreetsouth .

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